The plan to send the migrants to African countries - reported to be Uganda and Rwanda - was condemned by Israeli activists and sparked protests.

The new plan will be implemented over a five-year period. Mr Netanyahu's office described the agreement as "unprecedented".

"These understandings will allow the removal of more migrants from Israel than in the previous plan, and under UN and the international community's auspices," a statement said.

Canada, Italy and Germany are yet to officially confirm their participation in the agreement.

Where are the migrants from?

Most of the Africans are from Eritrea - a one-party state whose leaders have been accused of crimes against humanity by a UN inquiry - and war-torn Sudan.

They say they fled danger at home and that it is not safe to return, but Israel considers the majority of the African asylum seekers affected by the policy to be economic migrants.

Most of them entered from Egypt several years ago, before a new fence was built along the desert border. This has ended most illegal crossings.
How controversial is this issue?

The decision in January to offer the migrants a cash lump-sum and a plane ticket to leave Israel voluntarily or otherwise face forced expulsion was controversial in Israel.

Some critics in the country and among the Jewish community abroad - including former ambassadors and Holocaust survivors - saw the plan as unethical and a stain on Israel's international image. The UN refugee agency said it violated local and international laws, and large protests were held in Israel.

Mr Netanyahu said the opposition was "baseless and absurd" and that Israel would resettle "genuine refugees".

Activists, however, noted that only a handful of Eritreans and Sudanese had been recognised as refugees by Israel since the country took over the processing of applications from the UN in 2009.
How have people reacted?

Opposition leaders and activists in Israel hailed the new deal on Monday.

"I congratulate the activists who fought, campaigned and did not give up," said Avi Gabay, head of the Zionist Union, the largest opposition faction in the Israeli parliament.

Michal Rozin, a member of Israel's parliament and a lead campaigner against the expulsions, said the agreement represented the "success of the Israelis who protested against the evil of deportation".

But Shlomo Maslawi, a Tel Aviv city councillor who has organised protests against the presence of many African migrants in the south of the city, said the deal was a "disaster that will reverberate for generations to come".

Paramount
Member

Mon Apr 02 09:46:03
”About 16,000 others will be given permanent residency in Israel, he said.”

All 32,000 should stay in Israel. It is a democracy. It is safe there. No need to send them across the globe to Germany and Canada. People are not cattle. Shame on Israel.

Hours after announcing the new arrangement, which would also give thousands of other migrants the right to stay in Israel, Netanyahu posted a message on his Facebook page saying he was putting its implementation on hold until further review.

The fate of some 37,000 Africans in Israel has posed a moral dilemma for a state founded as a haven for Jews from persecution and a national home. The right-wing government has been under pressure from its nationalist voter base to expel the migrants.

According to the agreement, about 16,250 of about 37,000 African migrants, most of them from Eritrea and Sudan, would be relocated to Western nations while others would be allowed to stay in Israel.

At a news conference in Jerusalem, Netanyahu praised the new agreement reached with the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR). But in the hours that followed the announcement he faced growing calls on social and mainstream media to abolish the deal.

Some Israelis accused him of caving to left-wing pressure and betraying the residents of south Tel Aviv, a poor part of the city which has attracted the largest migrant community, changing its ethnic makeup and enraging some of its inhabitants who want the migrants out.

“I am attentive to you, especially to the residents of south Tel Aviv,” Netanyahu said on Facebook, adding that he planned to meet with local representatives on Tuesday.

“In the meantime I am suspending the agreement’s implementation and after I meet with the representatives I will bring it forward for further review,” Netanyahu said.

Paramount
Member

Tue Apr 03 08:48:29
So what will happen with the 37,000 africans? Will Israel put them in jail? Maybe in an open-air prison? And if they complain Israel will snipe them in their backs, or kill them will artillery grenades?

Sam Adams
Member

Tue Apr 03 08:54:54
Lol@artillery grenades.

Leftists on guns.

Also RIP europe.

Aeros
Member

Tue Apr 03 09:05:16
Deals off. Hardliners in Israel got Netenyahu to agree to expel them all or imprison them.

Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist

Tue Apr 03 14:07:57
All they have to do is send a letter to Trudeau and they will all be housed and given guaranteed income for life!

Cthulhu
Tentacle Rapist

Wed Apr 04 11:24:51
'So what will happen with the 37,000 africans? Will Israel put them in jail? Maybe in an open-air prison? And if they complain Israel will snipe them in their backs, or kill them will artillery grenades?'

Well, Hitler taught them what to do when you don't like a minority, I'm sure they will figure it out.

Paramount
Member

Wed Apr 04 11:29:44
I just remembered the movie Shindler’s List, where a nazi was sniping Jews in the concentration camp. Maybe it was from that movie that Israel got the idea to position snipers behind a hill and snipe Palestinians inside the Gaza ghetto camp.